Some of the questions I get…

When it came to making that final decision to launch/fire upon the enemy, how do you get yourself to make that decision?

Have you seen leaders not succeed and why do you think they failed?

What is the role of a leader?

What if people do not want control and the responsibility of making decisions?

How should leaders go about communicating organizational goals and criteria for making decisions? How can this be done without a huge checklist, which may miss the entire point of giving control?

Does change in how children are taught in schools help them take their own decisions more confidently? How would culture play a part in development?

Giving the power to take decision may still not make some people do it. Are there any ways of making/encouraging them to take decisions?

Do you think that military notions of leadership are wrong and should be changed?

Did the crew have a hard time taking more ownership of their roles?

Do you face a lot of opposition or skepticism while changing the way the culture on the submarine works?

Why did the navy put you in charge of a sub you weren’t familiar with?

Although you want to give control, how do you steer the crew in the right directions without taking too much control?

What leaders/people inspire you?

How do you inspire people to want to have control instead of wanting to be told what to do?

What action steps can be taken to move the focus of control in people who are used to being told what to do?

How do you build confidence in people who are not used to making decision?

How do you encourage leaders to trust their subordinates in order to allow them to build confidence in their own decisions?

Was there a particular turning point that led you/inspired you to throw away the secret copy of the tickler?

How do you think military experience is so valued in leaders?

How did you work with the crew/officers right after the incident (2/3 order)? Were they apprehensive?

Did you even meet the former captain? What was their reaction to your success?

What is next for you personally?

Did you have objections from below? From above?

What did you try to learn about the crew/ship in the small amount of time? What was #1 priority – people or systems?

Do you think you would have had the same epiphany if you had been properly trained on the ship/crew?

How do we prepare for the unforeseen?

How long did it take to change everyone to say “I intend to do”?

How long did it take until true change happened?

How do you lead when you know as little or less than the ones you are leading?

What is the first most important step to take when you would like to change the culture/actions?

Did you flip the script before Santa Fe?

What gave you the notion and strength to work outside the box?

Was there a moment you thought you shouldn’t have done something due to haste/lack of knowledge? How did you rectify it?

While you were starting to make changes, how did you get the navy (supervisors) to buy in?

How does a leader measure success after he has given control to subordinates

Wouldn’t giving too much control to a wrong person backfire? How do you avoid this?

From all of your experience, how does one best draw the line between complying with leadership out of respect for their position (as the crew on your ship) and stepping up to say something when you see a mistake or a better way?

Is the reason some people just want to be told what to do just a result of conditioning? Shouldn’t the conditioning process change at an earlier stage, and how?

Do you think submarine’s initial standing had an effect on your “change”? If you went to a “great” submarine, do you think crew would have responded differently?

How do you balance giving control v. anarchy? You need to have some control over your crew.

How do you know how much control to give without giving too much?

Did you ever go to a different ship & bring this model?

Are other countries’ militaries running the same way (controlling people) ?

Did you try to work with those two dissenting sailors to see if they could be brought around?

What are some skills that undersea warfare teaches you that other kinds of combat do not?

How do you measure combat effectiveness for citizens?

Do you think the navy was more receptive to this change in protocol than other branches would be?

Why do you think so much of our notion of “Loyalty” “Respect” is tied up in doing what someone asks of you?

What inspired you to enlist?

As a leader, when you think you know the right path and need to guide your team along that path, how do you convince yourself to give up micromanagement and let the team make their own choice? (Start teaching?)

Did you find yourself with closer friends with co-workers?

How difficult was it to cultivate relationships while onboard?

As the captain, were you asking for approval when making these changes? did you ask first or act first?

What to do with order takers?

Have you ever brought back old officers to speak with the new crew?

What happens when a subordinate on your ship starts acting on the idea you don’t agree with?

What leaders inspire you?

What are you doing now?

Unclear – why was it empowering as a leader to be only one with “to do” list?

Ask Charlie – What % of people just want to be fed what to do (in this experience)?

What should the role of the leader be? If subordinated are the one executing, and you are letting them make decisions and give them control, what in your opinion is the role, qualities of the good leader?

Changing the established power structure is frankly easy when you’re at the top. What about those who aren’t? How does one affect a culture from the bottom? Is this possible?

How “safe” is it to give control to everyone? How do you know how to judge who is worth it? Control in the wrong hands can be potentially dangerous…

Why is it that it is harder for us to accept responsibility/be given control?

What was the initial response from your fellow leaders? Was there any friction?

It’s easy to fall back to just “well tell me what to do, and I’ll do it”…How do you achieve the goal of building a business/company to go out and get things done on their own??

How do you breed free thinking in a company? Especially where people are repressed?

Can this idea of changing a company culture, affecting, empowering ppl to take action be from non-leaders?

Did you ever have an incident where a subordinate has put others in danger due to an uninformed decision?

How do you maintain a balance between control and taking control?

What kind of organizational constraints can be put in place to prevent certain individuals from taking more control than they were offered? Do these kind of constraints violate the very idea of giving control rather than executing it?

How do you coerce those who are capable of taking control, but are reluctant to take responsibility?

How did the US Navy react to the drastic changes being made on your sub? Did their opinion change at all as time went on?

How fast did it take for the crew to adjust to the new mentality?

How were you able to get the most difficult people to shift from controlled to taking control?

What will the role of the Leader be if the decisions are being made by subordinates?

Vulnerability as a leader – how without losing respect of your team? How do you overcome it?

Do you think leadership is innate or can be taught?

How do you get controlling manager to relinquish control?

Do you believe accountability is an important action in developing a person?

Your style seems center to the core beliefs of Navy. How did the Navy react to what you were doing?

Having no ability to provide monetary rewards, what is the best award or recognition you have provide?

What/how did you do to begin to build the trust you were not going to punish individuals when making mistakes (in the beginning at giving control)?

Why would the Navy allow you to take command of a ship that you have very little knowledge?

Do you feel your style of leadership was better than the former Commanders you reported to?

Did you face any backlash for changing formalized procedures?

What resources did you make from the Navy to help assist your leadership effort?

Is there a point to which you can relinquish too much control and how do you recognize it?

Do you have any suggestions or techniques in how to help teams rebuild trust with each other?

How do you hold people accountable while empower them at the same time?

If the sub was so successful, why didn’t they Navy change ALL procedures so that all subs succeed?

You had success on your ship making changes. How did you have any success changing the Navy culture?

How much lead time do you budget toward if you can give control without failures?

What types of decisions (if any) did you decide to maintain 100% control and why?

Did you experience resistance from your superiors as you changed your approach to leading? If so, how did you manage through their resistance?

How did you ensure clarity and technical competence at all levels?

Before your arrival, why were they performing so poorly?

Did you know that up front?

Was it a blessing that you didn’t know everything about the sub?

Did your leadership style change with changes in the level of danger you faced? If so, how did you make sure your crew understood the reasons for the changes in your style?

Was there ever a time when you changed a regulation that a higher commander had a problem with letting go of the control and letting the regulations change? How did you deal with the situation?

How did you get them to change their ability to give suggestions? People are sometimes afraid to put themselves out there.

Did you feel that your credibility was enhanced or diminished when you admit I don’t know? How do you maintain your authority?

How long did it take to go from, I don’t know to the culture of learning?

If they did individual certification, how did everyone learn what the others were doing?

Do our people always know when we are faking it?

Why don’t people hear or really listen. i.e. briefs

Why is hiring at [company] as hard as getting leave off submarines? Too many approvals.

How can I lead with all personalities and they all buy in?

Were you afraid you would lose credibility by admitting you didn’t know the answer?

Did you have to learn humility or were you always that way?

To what extent have y our teams’ success been intentionally replicated in the Navy and other branches of the US Armed Forces? Based on your answer, why haven’t they (the Armed Forces) done more to change?

What tips do you have to change a culture that makes decisions based on hierarchy?

How do you engage those employees who do not want to make decisions?

In our own way, we “go active” every day. How do you keep your team from experiencing burnout because they are asked to “go above and beyond” day after day?

The important thing is the thinking…How do you determine (in short) the style and quality of the thinking in a person?

How do you get the empowerment down into the rank and file?

What did you do with people who rejected the improvement?

With the success of Santa Fe, has the Navy done any training on delegation of authority?

Could your method of leadership been successful on destroyers where there is not the closeness of a submarine environment?

When changing form briefs to certification, was it all verbal or written?

What do people do if their boss/or leader wasn’t empowering them?

How do you get your boss/or leader to empower you?

Was there disciplinary action for the chief who took the easier shift and left “Sled Dog” exhausted?

Did you ever have people say you were “pawning off” your job to them to make it easier for you?

If empowerment is the key to effective change, what are the biggest barriers to empowering front line employees? How do you combat that?

How did your superiors react to your empowerment of the crew? How did they react to meeting style?

How did you adjust when decisions were made that you knew would have been different had you made the decision?

Do you see a fundamental difference between delegation and empowerment? How do you move past delegated to empowerment?

How different do you think your strategy would have been had you stayed on the original ship?

What is the best way to inspire someone to achieve the next level and yet tell them they are not ready yet?

In the short time you had to learn about the Santa Fe, what did you study first?